MALDEF wins release of 1970 Rubén Salazar death records

For more than 40 years, Mexican American rights groups and others have sought the truth about the death of Los Angeles journalist Rubén Salazar. The TV broadcaster and writer for the Los Angeles Times was a pioneering journalist, serving as the first Mexican American foreign correspondent and a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

In 1970, he died in the Chicano Moratorium Riots of 1970, and his death has remained a mystery. Struck in the head by a tear-gas projectile while seated inside a café, the case was ruled a homicide but the sheriff’s deputy accused was never charged.

For two years, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund had been waging a legal battle to have Sheriff Lee Baca and the County of Los Angeles release the un-redacted records regarding Salazar death. The Sheriff’s Department claimed the documents were exempt from public records requests.

Last week, MALDEF was successful in getting records released not only on behalf of all its clients — U.S. Latinos — but specifically for filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez, who’s working on a documentary on Salazar’s life.

According to a press release, “This settlement ensures that the sheriff can no longer attempt to control the use of critical historical records on the killing of iconic journalist Rubén Salazar. The public, through the forthcoming documentary film, will immediately benefit from the availability of these un-redacted records in assessing Salazar’s death 42 years ago,” said Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF president and general counsel.

Under the agreement, the sheriff will disclose its un-redacted autopsy and investigative documents as well as coroner’s photos. He’ll also hand over records about “an investigation, surveillance, or inquiry regarding journalist Ruben Salazar before or after his death.”

Salazar’s investigative work on police brutality against Mexican Americans had gotten the law-enforcement community’s attention, and he had been visited by officers.

He “was best known as the first Mexican American journalist to cover the Chicano community from the mainstream media,” the MALDEF press release said. “Despite the truth-seeking and investigative nature of his journalistic work, Salazar’s own death has been surrounded in secrecy for over 40 years.”

Rodriguez’s film reportedly will be the first to explore his death. “Rubén Salazar: The Man in the Middle” is set to air in the fall of 2013.